Security adviser speaks out against Franco-German "3rd option" for Iraq

Marek Siwiec, national security adviser to President Aleksander Kwasniewski, yesterday criticized a plan launched by Germany and France to avert war in Iraq as a badly-timed publicity stunt which would play into the hands of Saddam Hussein. Germany and France plan to put a proposal before the United Nations Security Council on Friday to send peacekeepers to Iraq and treble the number of inspectors hunting for suspected weapons of mass destruction. "In reality, at this stage this amount to support for Saddam Hussein," Siwiec said, echoing harsh US criticism of the scheme. Poland has emerged as a staunch ally of Washington in the Iraq crisis and was one of the "gang of nine" European countries which signed a recent open letter of support for the hard US line toward Baghdad. Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the French-German proposal but Siwiec said the initiative may be counter-productive. "In my opinion this is an attempt to grab attention in the international arena," he said. (Reuters) A.Z.